Saturday, February 27, 2010

Reading a blog by Paul Krugman of the New York Times yesterday, I came across an absolutely wonderful description of a right-wing ideologue. It was applied to Dick Armey, the former Republican congressman from Texas and, at the time, majority leader in the House. Armey was, and still is, remembered for boorish behavior.

At any rate, Armey was once described by Ezra Klein, columnist and blogger for the Washington Post, as “ … a stupid person’s idea of what a thoughtful person sounds like.”

Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Republican governor of Nevada, Jim Gibbons, who is divorcing his wife -- hell, it's much more likely to be the other way 'round -- was asked by a reporter if he took anyone with him to a governors' conference in Washington. Gibbons says he didn't. The reporter presses and asks again. And again the gov denies it.

It turns out, of course, that he did indeed take someone with him: one Kathy Karrasch, with whom Gibbons has been seen in social settings on a number of prior occasions.

But if being caught in an obvious lie wasn't enough, wouldn't ya think Gibbons (on the right) would have thought twice before having his picture taken with Ms. Karrasch ... and with Political-Philanderer-of-the-Year, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford?

Saturday, February 20, 2010

I enjoy stopping in at a blog originating from Alaska called The Mudflats ... mostly because it's a good source for the latest gossip about Sarah Palin from people who know here all too well. There's a lot of funny stuff there and Sister Sarah gets the needle a lot.

For instance, someone who follows the blog recently came across this refrigerator magnet while traveling on the mainland. Absolutely delicious, ain't it!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

The hypocrisy of the Republicans in Congress is stunning because it’s so obvious.One example (of literally many dozens): Eric Cantor, House Whip for the Republicans from the 7th District in Virginia.

This is the guy who organizes the House Republicans and somehow induced all 178 of them to vote against President Obama’s first stimulus package. That’s right … after demanding that the president be bi-partisan in developing his agenda, every last one of the Republicans in the U.S. House voted against his stimulus bill.

Cantor later described the stimulus program as an “utter failure.”

Well, let the record show that this is the very same Congressman Eric Cantor who sponsored two job fairs in his district at which people were hired by employers using stimulus dollars.

He is not alone, either. At last count, more than 50 House Republicans (a) voted against the stimulus, (b) trashed it in speeches and comments for the media, and (c) showed up proud as peacocks at the ribbon-cuttings and ground breakings for stimulus-funded projects in their districts. Many had the unmittigated gall to actually take credit for securing that funding.

When are Republican voters going to catch on: These guys think you’re stupid..

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

He trashed Obama’s stimulus program and refused to take millions of federal dollars from the program. (Don't need no Obama dollars in Texas.)

He opposed Obama’s efforts to reform health care on the grounds that Texans can do it better. (He’s done a helluva job so far: more than 25% of people in Texas have no health insurance, leading the nation in that dubious category.)

And Perry is so incensed at the big bad federal government, he has actually talked about the possibility of Texas seceding from the Union.

Take a good look at the photograph I found on a wonderful blog originating in Alaska called The Mudflats. It was taken at a Perry re-election rally. You just can't buy great advertising like that!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Waking up this morning to the news that Frank Fasi had died brought back a flood of memories. And no wonder: I can’t think of another person who had a greater impact on my life in Hawaii. In 1970, two years after he had been elected mayor, he appointed me to a position in the Honolulu city government. I served as a member of his cabinet for the next eight years.

But when I got off the boat here back in 1962, I had a small family to support, knew no one, and had no job. I had been given a couple of local contacts to help me get started, however, and Frank was one. I called him, introduced myself, invoked the name of our friend-in-common, and asked if he would give me a letter of recommendation to help in my job hunting.

With characteristic bluntness, he said, “I can’t do that, I don’t know you.” As I was thinking how to respond to that, he said, “So why don’t you and your wife and baby come up to the house and have dinner with us tomorrow night?”

We did and had a wonderful time. Frank was engaging and interesting and funny; Joyce, of course, was welcoming and sweet and stunningly beautiful.

Two mornings later, the phone in our little hotel room rang. It was Frank with the names of two local business people he had called and who had agreed to meet me … obviously because Frank had asked it of them. Almost every day after that, for probably the next two weeks, Frank would call with one or two more names.

You wonder why those of us who worked for him were loyal to the man? It’s because almost every one of us has a story like that to tell. Yes, he was a great mayor, probably the best Honolulu has ever had, but he was also a great friend. From Day One.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

One of the reasons to support health care reform is that we’re already paying for the uninsured anyway. I recently had a two-day stay at the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu. I received truly excellent care -- for which I am most grateful -- but the cost was more than $17,000. That's just the hospital bill. The surgeon's fee is yet to come.

Today’s Honolulu Advertiser reports that local hospitals are receiving more than $14 million dollars from the feds – our tax dollars – to “help defray the cost of providing service to uninsured and underinsured patents.” Note the phrase “ … help defray … ” which clearly means these federal funds don’t begin to cover all the costs.

The rest of the shortfall is made up by those of us with health insurance. When we use hospital services, we’re charged several times more than what would ordinarily be a fair price. And the health insurance companies charge us higher premiums than would be necessary if everyone were required to have coverage.

Of course, that would be socialism, wouldn’t it!

Wait a sec … don’t we require everyone to have car insurance … and fire insurance … for exactly the same reasons? Indeed we do ... but just imagine the screeching from all those right-wingers if their car insurance premiums were doubled to cover the cost of fixing wrecked cars of people who didn’t have insurance.

But silly me ... I keep thinking rational argument will decide this issue.

About Me

I'm a long-time resident of Hawaii, moving here in 1962. After working in local government, I was the owner of a Honolulu-based advertising agency for 20 years, specializing in creating media and strategy for numerous political campaigns. I'm now retired, but do some freelance writing, much of which is about train travel.